The New Atheism and the Formation of the Imagined Secularist Community

摘要

This article looks at how the new atheist phenomenon has been interpreted and appropriated by those involved in atheist and secular humanist organizations. We see a connection between new atheism as a broad social phenomenon and the publicly emerging needs and desires of secularists; they are both cause and effect of the transformation of experience with the expansion of electronic communication technologies. While even some secularists claim the new atheists are doing more harm than good, we argue that such critiques ultimately miss the function of the books. Taken collectively they provide a highly diverse population of secularists with a common and general set of issues and ideas in which to imagine a sense of community.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2011.549391